To develop the adhesive, DaniMer utilized renewable building blocks from two suppliers: DuPont Tate & Lyle BioProducts and Myriant. DaniMer combines Susterra propanediol from DuPont Tate & Lyle and bio-succinic acid from Myriant into a proprietary, patent-pending resin that enables the breakthrough properties of the new 92721 label adhesive.

The label adhesive is designed to meet the stringent demands of the PET container and packaging recycling streams while offering the additional benefit of a renewable content higher than 50%. The adhesive reportedly dissolves completely in the PET flake caustic wash recycling operations without clumps or “stickies.” Company says the formulation is competitively priced with block copolymers, with pricing not linked to crude oil derivatives. In addition, the rheology of DaniMer 92721 enables the adhesive to operate in existing adhesive systems at temperatures under 325 deg F. Results from industry standard protocol testing are said to show the product enables zero contamination in PET recycle streams.

“DaniMer is pleased to announce this advancement toward eliminating a significant challenge within the PET recycling process,” said Daniel Carraway, CEO of DaniMer Scientific. “We have been actively engaged with our customer partners in order to best understand the PET recycling processing challenges. The issue of contamination by the label adhesive was a recurring problem, and [solving it] would provide a significant quality improvement for the users of recycled PET. Our objective of providing world-class solutions led us to choose DuPont Tate & Lyle along with Myriant as our primary suppliers for this project due to their innovative capabilities, knowledge, and extensive background with the development of renewable building blocks”.

“Susterra propanediol is certified 100% biobased by the US Department of Agriculture, making it attractive for companies seeking to add renewable content to their products,” says Pete Colombo, account executive for DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products. “We are excited to be selected by DaniMer as a key ingredient for this new biobased adhesive technology.”

DaniMer Scientific will be providing details and describing the commercial launch of their new label adhesive at the Nova-Pack 2012 Conference in Arlington, VA. The product exhibition will be on June 7–8 at West Arlington Gateway Hotel, just outside of Washington, DC.